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Application No.: 17/01001/B Applicant: Mr Andrew McGee Proposal: Extension of existing menage Site Address: Field 522740 Quines Hill Port Soderick Isle Of Man Case Officer : Mr Edmond Riley Expected Decision Level: Officer Delegation Recommended Decision: Permitted Date of Recommendation: 24.10.2017 _________________________________________________________________
C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions C 1. The development hereby approved shall be begun before the expiration of four years from the date of this decision notice.
Reason: To comply with article 14 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) (No2) Order 2013 and to avoid the accumulation of unimplemented planning approvals.
The development hereby approved relates to Drawings 17-555 X 001, 17-555 X 002, 17-555 PL 001 and 17-555 PL 201, all four date-stamped as having been received 19th September 2017.
_______________________________________________________________ Interested Person Status – Additional Persons
None. _____________________________________________________________________________
1.0 THE APPLICATION SITE - 1.1 The application site is a large parcel of land largely comprising Field 522740, which is one of many fields owned in association with Ballamona Farmhouse in Port Soderick. Also within the application site is a manege, which sits at the northwesternmost part of the Ballamona Estate that has changed quite significantly in recent years.
1.2 The manege is very well-screened from the public highway, with much of the Estate being set in amongst existing and established trees. The submitted plans show a bank in front of the manege, but the trees are the dominant feature. The Estate is surprisingly well-hidden from the Old Castletown Road, from which it is accessed, with highway-bounded hedges and walls providing intermittent screening. The land slopes down from the highway in a sweeping rather than especially dramatic manner, but the Estate is a striking one set in attractive and treed grounds.
2.0 DESCRIPTION OF THE APPLICATION - 2.1 Full planning approval is sought for the extension of the existing manege. (The application form indicates that the existing and proposed use of the site is 'agricultural', but 'equestrian' seems more likely.) Approval to the proposed development would result in the manege increasing in size from 40m x 20m to 60m x 20m. The boundary treatment, at present post and rail fencing, would be retained and extended around the extension proposed at the same height as the existing.
3.0 PLANNING HISTORY - 3.1 The same application site was the subject of a pair of applications earlier in the year (PAs 17/00294/B and 17/00738/B) for the erection of a polytunnel to the northwest of the manege, which would be accompanied by some groundworks to include the installation of gabion baskets. Both those applications (the latter proposing slight amendments to the size and material of the polytunnel, and the retention of the existing tree line) were approved. - 3.2 It is worth noting some of the assessment made in the former application:
"…here, the proposed location site is not an especially visible one, and moreover would be well-screened by existing landscape features that would be partly retained and partly replanted. Also in favour of the application is the fact that the site would be surrounded by walls, fences and hedging. The polytunnel would therefore sit somewhat comfortably within the existing landscape, especially given the screening present but also given that its visual impact would be set against the existing manege, which is another obviously man-made feature."
3.3 The wider estate has been the subject of several applications for various conversions of the associated buildings in the early 2010s onwards, though none of these is considered specifically material to the assessment of this proposal. Under two of these applications (PAs 10/00340/B and 10/01468/B), the existing manege was approved as it was very clearly shown on the submitted drawings, but the case officer on neither occasion assessed its impact.
4.0 PLANNING POLICY - 4.1 The site falls within an area zoned on the Braddan Local Plan of 1991 as Open Space/Agricultural and the lodge is situated within a small area of Woodland. The Braddan Local Plan also indicates that all areas of land not designated for development should be identified as of High Landscape Value and Scenic Significance. The Town and Country Planning (Development Plan) Order 1982, which introduced the concept of High Landscape Value and Scenic Significance on development plans, shows the area identified as such. - 4.2 Environment Policies 1, 2 and 19 of the Strategic Plan therefore apply in this instance.
5.0 REPRESENTATIONS - 5.1 Highway Services of the DoI stated the application had no highways implications on 19th September 2017, while Braddan Parish Commissioners offered no objection on 12th September 2017.
6.1 The development proposed would have a negligible impact on the character and appearance of the countryside. Though the extension amounts to a 50% increase above what is already in existence, the manege at present is barely noticeable from public positions. The approved polytunnel schemes - details of which are helpfully shown on the submitted drawings
7.0 CONCLUSION - 7.1 It is concluded that EPs 1, 2 and 19 of the Strategic Plan are met. Consideration was given to a condition preventing the commercial use of the manege. Such conditions are usually required where there are concerns as to how a more intensive use of a site may affect neighbouring living conditions or are served by inadequate accesses. Neither of these concerns apparently applies in this case and, being mindful that a commercial use in itself may well comprise a formal change of use in any case, no such condition is recommended in this instance.
I can confirm that this decision has been made by the Head of Development Management in accordance with the authority afforded to that Officer by the appropriate DEFA Delegation.
Decision Made : Permitted Date : 26.10.2017 Determining officer
Signed : S BUTLER Stephen Butler Head of Development Management
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